Hate food during pregnancy
Appetite changes and food aversions during pregnancy
Appetite changes and food aversions during pregnancy | Pregnancy Birth and Baby beginning of content6-minute read
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Key facts
- Appetite changes are very common during pregnancy and may affect weight changes.
- A food aversion is an intense dislike of a specific food, together with unpleasant physical symptoms when you see or smell a particular food.
- Eating for 2 during pregnancy is a myth. It is the quality not quantity of food that matters.
- When you are pregnant, your body needs certain vitamins, minerals and nutrients, including iron, folate and iodine.
- If your nausea prevents you from getting enough nutrition, or if you are vomiting, not able to keep food or fluids down or losing weight, see your doctor or maternal health nurse.
What are food aversions, and why does appetite change during pregnancy?
A food aversion is an intense dislike of a specific food, together with unpleasant physical symptoms when you see or smell a particular food. These reactions are usually triggered by emotions associated with food rather than the food itself. You might also experience food cravings (an intense urge to eat a specific food). While these appetite changes are quite common, they can make healthy eating during pregnancy a challenge.
Is it normal for my appetite to change during pregnancy?
It is normal to experience either a loss of appetite or a change in food preferences during pregnancy. This may play a part in how much your weight changes during pregnancy.
Food aversions are common, and around 6 in 10 people experience a food aversion while pregnant.
When are food aversions likely to start and end?
You can experience food aversions resulting from generalised nausea (also known as 'morning sickness') at any time of day, and it tends to peak between week 6 and week 14 of pregnancy.
For this reason, if you've gone off certain foods that are important for your diet, you can try again later in your pregnancy to see if the aversion has passed. If your nausea prevents you from getting enough nutrition, or you are vomiting, not able to keep food or fluids down or losing weight, it's time to see your doctor.
What food aversions are common?
Common food aversions include:
- alcohol
- coffee / tea
- meat
- fatty food
- spicy food
- eggs
What causes food aversions?
While the cause of food aversions during pregnancy isn't clear, hormonal changes could affect the food you enjoy, particularly early in your pregnancy. For example, human gonadotropin (also known as hCG) is a hormone produced during pregnancy. It can cause feelings of nausea, appetite changes and food aversion. Pregnancy can also cause a greater sensitivity to smell and taste, which can influence the foods you prefer to eat.
More research is needed to better understand why food cravings and aversions occur. Some reasons may include hormonal balance or protecting the unborn baby from harmful substances and/or nutritional deficiencies. This is to encourage good nutrition and growth in the pregnancy.
How can I eat well and have a healthy diet?
A healthy diet is important for both you and your baby. Eating for 2 during pregnancy is a myth. It is the quality not quantity of food that matters, and there is no need to eat twice as much. It is the quality not the quantity of food that matters most. Your diet should include a variety of the five food groups:
- vegetables and legumes
- breads and cereals
- milk, yoghurt and cheese
- meat, poultry, fish and alternatives
- fruit
During pregnancy, your body also needs plenty of water (8 to 10 glasses each day). You will also need extra vitamins, minerals, and nutrients to help your baby develop, including these:
- Folate (Folic acid) helps build your baby’s brain cells and prevents risk of the baby being born with a birth defect of the brain and/or spinal cord. This is especially important in the early stages of pregnancy. Folate-rich foods include green leafy vegetables, broccoli, legumes, oranges, avocado, or fortified breads and cereals.
- Iodine is also important for your baby’s growth and development. Choose foods that are sources of iodine, such as low-fat milk products, eggs, cooked fish and seafood. Foods that contain seaweed, such as sushi, are also a good source of iodine, but if you’re pregnant only eat sushi without raw fish, cold meat or egg, and that is freshly prepared. If you add salt to your food or in cooking, choose iodised salt. If you have a thyroid condition, seek advice from your doctor before taking an iodine supplement.
- Iron-rich foods are recommended during pregnancy. These include red meat, poultry, tofu, and iron-fortified cereals. Eating foods high in vitamin C such as oranges, kiwi fruit, capsicum and broccoli can help iron absorption. Do not take an iron supplement during pregnancy without first checking with your doctor. Too much iron can pose health risks to you and your baby. A blood test will help your doctor know if you need to take iron tablets.
If you develop an aversion to meat or another essential food, consider how you might substitute these for alternatives. For example, substitute meat for nuts.
It is also important to limit foods containing:
- saturated fats (biscuits, cakes, pies, butter and cream)
- added salt (processed meats, pickled fish, fast foods)
- added sugars (confectionary, sugar sweetened soft drinks, fruit juice and cordial)
Alcohol is not safe for developing babies, and not drinking alcohol is the safest option while you’re pregnant.
There are also certain foods you should avoid during pregnancy, so ask your doctor or maternal health nurse for more information.
Appetite changes during pregnancy are unlikely to harm you or your baby or significantly compromise your nutrition. If you are not sure which foods are most important for your diet, or you have no appetite for foods containing important nutrients, seek advice.
More information on changes in appetite
For more advice on food aversions or appetite loss in pregnancy speak to your:
- doctor
- midwife
- obstetrician
- accredited practising dietitian
Sources:
Epworth Hospital (Ask an Epworth midwife Your guide to early pregnancy), Royal Women Hospital Melbourne (Common concerns in early pregnancy), Queensland Health (During pregnancy), ACT Government (Good Nutrition in pregnancy), Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (Food Intolerance), University of Queensland (What the health: Why do women crave certain foods when they are pregnant), Australian Government (Healthy eating during your pregnancy), Science and Education Publishing (Psychological Factors in Food Aversions, Nausea, and Vomiting During Pregnancy), National Health and Medical Research Council (Australian guidelines to reduce health risks from drinking alcohol)Learn more here about the development and quality assurance of healthdirect content.
Last reviewed: July 2022
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Causes, Common Aversions, and Coping
Food Aversion in Pregnancy: Causes, Common Aversions, and CopingMedically reviewed by Debra Sullivan, Ph.D., MSN, R.N., CNE, COI — By Lisa C. Baker on December 18, 2018
What is a food aversion?
Sending your partner out on a midnight ice cream run? Grabbing a jar of pickles for breakfast? Food cravings are so expected during pregnancy, they’re a familiar cliché.
But what about food aversions? If you were expecting to want to eat everything in sight while pregnant, then your sudden hatred of what used to be your favorite snack might take you by surprise.
Here’s why you can’t eat some things you used to love and how you can cope with food aversions during pregnancy.
What causes food aversions during pregnancy?
Food aversions, like cravings, are possibly caused by the hormonal changes of pregnancy. The amount of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), the hormone that triggered your positive pregnancy test, doubles every few days during your first trimester.
HCG levels peak and level off at around week 11 of pregnancy. Up to that point, the rapidly rising levels may be behind symptoms such as nausea, cravings, and food aversions. However, your hormones will continue to affect your appetite throughout pregnancy.
Your food aversions could also be associated with your morning sickness. This could be because both are caused by hCG. However, it could also be because you associate morning sickness with the foods you’re eating at the time.
According to the Mayo Clinic, nausea and food aversions can both be early symptoms of pregnancy, which continue into the first trimester. These early symptoms sometimes even last throughout pregnancy.
What the research says
A literature review published in Frontiers in Psychology suggests that nausea and food aversions may be related when they occur during pregnancy. The study’s authors emphasized that this conclusion is largely based on dated studies, and more research is needed.
A review of literature in the Journal of Food and Nutrition Research asserted a relationship between food aversions and both nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.
The researchers suggested that this relationship may be caused by a bodily mechanism that protects against potentially harmful elements in certain foods. The relationship may also be the result of complex cultural and psychological reasons.
When are food aversions most likely to occur?
You’re most likely to experience food aversions during the first trimester. However, you can experience food aversions at any point during pregnancy. New aversions can also develop at any time during your pregnancy.
Most of the time, food aversions will disappear after your baby arrives. It’s also possible for aversions to continue indefinitely.
What are common food aversions during pregnancy?
During pregnancy, you can experience an aversion or a craving for any food. It’s even possible to have an aversion toward a specific food at one point during your pregnancy and to crave the same food later. However, the most common aversions are toward foods with strong smells.
Common pregnancy aversions include:
- meat
- eggs
- milk
- onions
- garlic
- tea and coffee
- spicy foods
Some pregnant women also crave the foods listed above. Which foods you hate — or crave — during pregnancy aren’t necessarily related to your pre-pregnancy diet.
As pregnancy is wreaking havoc on your hormones, it’s common to want to eat something you used to dislike and to hate foods you used to love.
How can you cope with food aversions during pregnancy?
In most cases, it’s healthy to listen to your body during pregnancy. This means that it’s fine to avoid your aversions and eat the foods you crave — in moderation. Try not to overdo it.
A study in the journal Appetite found that giving in to cravings in a big way during pregnancy is associated with excessive weight gain.
If your aversions include foods that are important during pregnancy, make sure you’re getting those nutrients in other ways. For example, if you have an aversion to meat, eat plenty of other high-protein foods such as nuts and beans.
You can also get around aversions by “hiding” the food that you don’t want in other foods. For example, if salads make you feel sick, try putting your leafy greens in a fruit smoothie. There you won’t notice the taste or texture.
What is the takeaway?
Both food aversions and cravings are normal during pregnancy, so you usually don’t need to be concerned. However, if you’re unable to eat most foods, it could affect your baby’s growth. If this is the case, discuss weight gain with your doctor.
During pregnancy, food aversions are sometimes accompanied by cravings for ice or other nonfoods.
It’s possible for pregnant women to crave harmful things that aren’t food, such as dirt or chalk. This condition, called pica, can be a sign of an underlying medical problem. If you experience this, call your doctor.
Q&A: Nausea and morning sickness
Q:
What are some remedies for nausea and morning sickness during pregnancy?
Anonymous patient
A:
Morning sickness is common during pregnancy but it usually resolves after the first trimester. There is no cure for morning sickness but there are recommendations that could make morning sickness tolerable. Try to set your alarm a little early in the morning so that you can give yourself plenty of time to wake up and move slowly getting out of bed. Place some saltine crackers on your nightstand so that you can eat them upon sitting up in bed. During the day eat small meals and avoid any spicy or greasy food. There are some products you can buy to help, for example Preggie Pop Drops, which are drug free; Sea-Bands, which use acupressure pulse points to help you fight nausea; and candy drops that contain ginger and lemon to sooth the stomach.
Debra Sullivan, PhD, MSN, RN, CNE, COIAnswers represent the opinions of our medical experts. All content is strictly informational and should not be considered medical advice.
Last medically reviewed on December 19, 2018
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How we vetted this article:
Healthline has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical associations. We avoid using tertiary references. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy.
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2016). Your pregnancy and childbirth: Month to month. Washington, D.C.: American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
- Mayo Clinic Staff. (2017). First trimester pregnancy: what to expect.
mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/pregnancy-week-by-week/in-depth/pregnancy/art-20047208 - Mayo Clinic Staff. (2017). Symptoms of pregnancy: What happens first.
mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/getting-pregnant/in-depth/symptoms-of-pregnancy/art-20043853 - Orloff NC, et al. (2014). Pickles and ice cream! Food cravings in pregnancy: Hypotheses, preliminary evidence, and directions for future research. DOI:
10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01076 - Orloff NC, et al. (2016). Food cravings in pregnancy: Preliminary evidence for a role in excess gestational weight gain. DOI:
10.1016/j.appet.2016.04.040 - Pregnancy: Nutrition. (2018).
my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/12593-pregnancy - Schactman, TR, et al. (2016). Psychological factors in food aversions, nausea, and vomiting during pregnancy. DOI:
10.12691/jfnr-4-10-8
Our experts continually monitor the health and wellness space, and we update our articles when new information becomes available.
Current Version
Dec 19, 2018
By
Lisa C. Baker
Edited By
Kara Williams
Medically Reviewed By
Debra Sullivan, PhD, MSN, RN, CNE, COI
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Medically reviewed by Debra Sullivan, Ph.D., MSN, R.N., CNE, COI — By Lisa C. Baker on December 18, 2018
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The cause of pregnancy whimsical nutrition: it's not because their body lacks something
- Veronica Greenwood
- BBC Future
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Image copyright Getty Images
What's behind pregnancy's weird eating habits? Most likely, not at all what we are used to thinking about.
We have all heard stories a thousand times about a pregnant woman who, in the middle of the night, wanted a pickled cucumber with ice cream so much that she sent her husband in search of the desired products. Or who passionately wants chocolate - but not any, namely one that cannot be found in stores nearby.
However, why "heard"? Perhaps you yourself experienced an inexplicable desire to eat something special when you were pregnant.
Often they try to explain this by saying that the food whims of pregnant women occur due to the fact that their body (or the body of a developing fetus) suddenly needed certain nutrients, and there is even something attractive, touching in such an explanation.
In the end, bearing a child is a difficult, long, not always pleasant and sometimes mysterious process. And if a burning desire to urgently eat a burger, or even two, has such a good reason - well, so be it.
However, if you look at the scientific studies of this phenomenon, everything turns out to be much more complex and fascinating.
Researchers have found that the food whims of pregnancy (as a concept) did not exist in all cultures.
And in those non-English speaking countries where pregnant women sometimes report their sudden food cravings, they want something completely different than, for example, women in the US and the UK. For example, in Japan, most often they want such a prosaic thing as rice.
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Going further, studies that have tried to find out whether the body gets the special nutrients it needs from the foods that pregnant women most often want to eat have found no evidence of this.
In fact, women who reported cravings for food ended up gaining much more weight than is considered healthy during pregnancy as a result, which could lead to more complications.
This, however, does not mean that women invent all their desires. And the fact that the reasons for their whims are completely different, they are not dictated by biochemical need.
Understanding why people suddenly crave certain foods in the first place can help, says Julia Hormes, a professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Albany, who studies food cravings in a variety of ways.
For example, she says that about 50% of women in the US report craving chocolate during the week leading up to their period.
The scientists decided to investigate whether this craving is due to certain nutrients in chocolate that are important for menstruation, or whether it reflects hormonal changes.
Image copyright, Getty Images
Image caption,Food cravings may be related to the psychology or cultural traditions of a particular society
In one experiment, a psychologist gave women a box and asked them to eat its contents when they suddenly felt like eating something .
Some of the boxes contained milk chocolate, which had all the usual chocolate ingredients and also had a nice melt-in-the-mouth sweetness.
In others, white chocolate that does not contain cocoa solids (which give milk and dark chocolate its dark color) but still has a pleasant texture.
Third, cocoa candies with all the nutrients of cocoa, but without the mouthfeel that chocolate does.
It turned out that white chocolate had the greatest success in satisfying desires, which suggests that whims are not spurred on by any particularly useful cocoa ingredients.
Other studies of "chocolate whims" have not found an association with hormone levels.
In fact, even during menopause, women continued to feel the desire to eat chocolate, Horms emphasizes, they simply began to attribute it to other reasons.
All this brings us to the conclusion that the source of food vagaries is in psychology or in cultural traditions. A craving for a cookie, a chocolate bar, or a bag of chips can start as a simple thought and then grow bigger and bigger, becoming an obsession that is hard to resist.
At the same time, thoughts of something delicious can coexist with feelings of guilt.
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In particular, if you hold yourself back for a long time and a barrier has already formed in your head (you are not allowed to eat this food!), it will be extremely difficult to resist and not lose control of your desires when you reach for a forbidden treat.
And then, after eating a piece of cake, instead of feeling satisfied and doing something else, you eat three more pieces.
Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that women during pregnancy can limit themselves to certain foods - either by following a healthier diet or following the recommendations of a doctor.
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Image caption,Eating a piece of chocolate regularly can keep you from falling into uncontrollable devouring of tiles
All of these circumstances give rise - at least in some countries of the world - to situations in which food cravings are more frequent and more likely to occur and are harder to control, which can lead to, say, weight gain.
In addition, during pregnancy, a woman's whims in eating are not customary to condemn.
"There are certain moments and situations in our culture where women are not judged for eating foods that are normally supposed to be avoided," says Horms. "PMS and pregnancy are considered such situations in society."
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Understanding what leads to a craving to eat something can prevent the transition from just thinking about cake to eating cake, Hormes emphasizes.
One way is to use distractions, both visual and, for example, olfactory. The other is, with the help of self-contemplation and awareness achieved in meditation, to recognize the presence of desire and let it go, let it go.
Professor Hormes also recommends that if you have a craving for chocolate, for example, buy a very high quality bar and eat a couple of pieces every day, thus preventing the food whim from turning into an obsession and subjugating you.
As for food whims during pregnancy, the cultural factor can play an additional role here: pregnancy for a woman is a very stressful time, and it can be difficult to go through it without someone's help.
A study of Tanzanian women who reported their cravings for meat, fish, grains, fruits and vegetables to scientists showed that when a woman got what she wanted, she perceived it as a sign of support from her husband and family.
Indeed, it takes a lot of dedication to bring pickles to your pregnant wife at two in the morning, which proves that a person really cares about his wife.
While pickles are great on their own, the fact that your loved one brought them to you and thought of you adds value to them.
--
Read the original English version of this article at BBC Future .
“I began to hate my body and myself. I wanted to give up everything and run away”
Veronika Demina experienced all the “joys” of pregnancy: she gained 45 kilograms, went through a deep depression and came to complete rejection of herself, but after that she turned to specialists and learned to live happily again
Editorial
Do not self-medicate! In our articles, we collect the latest scientific data and the opinions of authoritative health experts. But remember: only a doctor can diagnose and prescribe treatment.
Every day, scrolling through the feed on Instagram (a social network recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of the Russian Federation), you can see dozens (if not hundreds) of "perfect" women. Smiling and harmonious, loving and beloved, with beautiful, healthy children and ideal bodies that have not changed at all after pregnancy.
Real girls can hardly withstand such an onslaught. Looking at the stretch marks that slashed the whole body after 9 months of “waiting for a miracle”, at the stomach, resembling a deflated balloon, and at the chest, which no longer allows wearing things with a decollete, they ask themselves: is it really only me who faced this?
The answer to this question is no: thousands of women around the world have experienced or are experiencing exactly the same thing right now. But for some reason they are silent - and that is why the illusion of general well-being is created. Why, then, almost no one tells the bitter truth about an “interesting situation” on social networks, preferring to flaunt only its most joyful moments?
Our heroine Veronika Demina (@niki_not_alone) started the most honest account in which she made it a rule to describe without embellishment everything that happened and is happening to her and her body during and after her first pregnancy. TheSymbol.ru Veronica spoke about deep depression, due to which she gained 45 kilograms; about the severe consequences of childbirth and the conscious decision to resort to the help of a surgeon in order to return to the previous body.
It was difficult for me to see photos and videos of those women who supposedly walk without swelling throughout their pregnancy, do makeup and visit beauty salons, spend time with their beloved husbands, and almost the next day after giving birth brag about tightened abs. Everything was wrong with me.
From the very first weeks of pregnancy, I changed a lot: I became terribly sentimental, cried over every stray cat, reacted sharply to all the injustice in the world and suffered from the thought that my child in the future would have to face all the same pain that I experience now. Deep emotional upheavals and experiences attacked me every minute, but in the circle of loved ones I could not find understanding. I did not have enough support, I realized that I could not cope with such a moral burden. And then food came to the rescue...
I ate stress without knowing the measure, the weight grew rapidly, and along with it my emotional instability grew. So I brought myself to depression. Self-esteem was at zero, I constantly felt guilty before everyone, I was permanently in a terrible mood, I didn’t sleep well, I didn’t want to contact anyone and scolded myself for inadequate food addiction. So in 9 months I gained 45 kilograms - despite the fact that my normal weight before pregnancy was 47 kilograms with a height of 160 centimeters. I began to hate my body and myself. I wanted to give up everything, run away from everyone and start life anew, but my daughter was already growing inside me, and I always kept in my head the idea that the responsibility for her well-being lies only on my shoulders.
Immediately after the appearance of my daughter, the whole world ceased to exist for me. It was as if there were only two of us: me and her. Her birth awakened an incredibly strong love inside me, and love gives birth to self-confidence. Almost from the first day after giving birth, I regained my former self - and even became stronger. But something was no longer the same - my figure.
Afraid to look at her again, at home I tried to wear shapeless clothes. I avoided meeting with mirrors. However, a week after giving birth, she nevertheless decided to look the problem “in the face” - and after that she sobbed excitedly. A sense of hopelessness washed over me. I saw a completely alien body: loose, with torn skin, terrible swelling. It was an organism that gave all the juices, all the vitamins, all the most valuable things to its child. And inside this exhausted and ugly huge shell sat a very small me - not understanding what to do, where to go, how to save myself. But at the same time, I knew for sure that I would not be able to come to terms with a new terrifying reflection.
When I was 8 months old, I thought about plastic surgery for the first time: I realized that my stomach had stretched to such an extent that only a surgeon would help return it to its previous appearance. It was then that I learned about such an operation as abdominoplasty.
Of course, there was no question of shifting all responsibility for my appearance to doctors: soon after giving birth, I took myself seriously, began to actively train, did massages, body wraps, regularly took contrast showers. She also resorted to cosmetic procedures. But, most importantly, I began to deal with my internal state - I turned to a psychologist for help. Communication with a specialist helped me realize that you can’t hate your body: on the contrary, after everything that it has experienced, you must treat it with deep regret and sincere gratitude. I did it: I managed to accept myself again and love. But there were still serious problems that could only be solved by surgery.
The memory of 9 months of pregnancy left me with more than just deep stretch marks and sagging skin. I also faced much more critical consequences - and this is an umbilical hernia, coupled with diastasis. Together, these two diagnoses cause severe discomfort in the body: the navel constantly “aches”, it hurts to laugh, sneeze, carry a child in your arms. And such a problem is fraught with "falling out" of organs, because the muscles do not fix them at all. On top of that, I developed breast ptosis. The operation was simply necessary.
Having made the decision to go to the surgeon during my pregnancy, I immersed myself in studying the profiles of all the famous doctors specializing in abdominoplasty and mammoplasty. I learned everything about the possible consequences after such a serious surgical intervention. There were moments when the thought slipped through to abandon this idea - after all, in the age of widespread advertising, it is very easy to fall into the hands of a false specialist. Unqualified doctors posing as professionals can not only ruin your chest or stomach, but also cause serious harm to your health with a risk of death.
If my only goal was to "improve" myself visually, I might change my mind for fear of critical complications. But pains in my stomach began to haunt me more and more often, I felt constant discomfort and realized that I simply could not fully exist with these feelings.
It took several years to choose a surgeon. In this difficult process, I was helped by the online diaries of girls who underwent similar operations and talked about how their recovery process is going. In a couple of years, I studied the profiles of about 500 girls. The main conclusion that I made: the doctor you choose should be responsible for your condition and not leave you to the mercy of fate if something suddenly goes wrong. Also, the doctor must have a decent team, a proven anesthesiologist-resuscitator. It is also important to make sure that the clinic has resuscitation equipment. And no less important is the mental connection between the surgeon and the patient: my doctor listened carefully to all my wishes, studied my “pre-pregnancy” photos in detail, was incredibly sensitive from the moment of the first consultation. This says a lot. Without such an attitude, one cannot achieve an ideal result.
Preparation for the operation began with a huge number of tests. It is necessary to fully examine the body in order to predict all possible scenarios. My operation was not easy: it lasted 5 hours, hernia repair and diastasis closure were performed, as well as breast lift and enlargement.
As soon as I entered the room, the staff was with me almost all the time: they calmed me down, set me up. It helped me a lot: I almost did not feel fear. Everything passed quickly: I remember the smile of the nurse escorting me to the operating table, and now I wake up in the ward in dressings.
I recovered quickly from anesthesia, but the hardest part was ahead of me. After all, there was a big operation behind my shoulders, and now my body has thrown all its strength into recovery.
For the first week I walked with a drain, a vessel that was attached to my arm. A tube sewn inside the abdomen led to him: through it, excess fluid and ichor, accumulating under the skin, came out. Such a device is simply necessary with such a scale of operation.
Stitches are removed after 2 weeks - and only then can you take a long-awaited shower. Before that, you have to wash in “snaps”, and in order to achieve clean hair, you need to call for help from your friends: it’s impossible to wash your own hair because of the ban on raising your hands. Also, you can’t bend over, lift weights and, even more so, a child. Therefore, if you are planning such an operation, make sure that you always have help at home with you. At first, you won’t even be able to make yourself tea: for me, even a mug of water was heavy. But after about a week, I finally came to my senses.
No matter how hard it is, when I look in the mirror, I am happy and cannot believe my eyes. I finally experience great and sincere love for myself. An interesting feeling: either I'm new now, or I just returned to my old, "pre-pregnant" body.